Crows defeat Bulldogs 14.6 (90) to 9.14 (68) in elimination final
Adelaide head to Brisbane for semi-final against reigning premiers
Adelaide have survived a late scare to end the Western Bulldogs’ season with a nerve-jangling 22-point elimination final victory.
The Crows led by 19 points at three-quarter time but slipped behind in the final term, before prevailing 14.6 (90) to 9.14 (68) on Saturday night.
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The Cleveland Guardians (59%) have beaten up on sub .500 teams this season, posting a strong 46-32 record when they host the Detroit Tigers.
With a more in-form offense and a high-end starting pitcher taking the mound, my Tigers vs. Guardians predictions and MLB picks are backing Cleveland to clinch a series victory with another win tonight.
For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.
To say the Detroit Tigers are struggling against left-handed pitching would be an understatement.
They’ve hit just .219 over the past month while striking out more than 25% of the time. Their advanced numbers are equally as alarming, with the offense sitting 29th in xwOBA.
Now they draw Parker Messick, who ranks in the 98th percentile in Pitching Run Value. Not a great spot to get off the mat.
The Cleveland Guardians slot eighth in xwOBA against lefties the last 30 days, and showed the ability to get to Detroit’s bullpen in two come-from-behind wins Friday.
Back the Guardians to 61%.
COVERS INTEL: Messick's 91st percentile barrel rate should play extremely well against a Tigers lineup sitting last in barrel% vs. lefties over the last month.Messick is a tough nut to crack for any offense, but he’s made life especially miserable when facing poor offenses.
He has faced eight Bottom-10 teams in OPS vs. lefties. The results are remarkably good, with Messick allowing two runs or less in all eight.
I don’t see Detroit scoring much in this spot, which puts a lot of pressure on the Guardians.
Framber Valdez is an elite ground ball generator, and his barrel rate has improved to 5.1% over the past 30 days.
He shouldn’t give up much power, making the Under attractive up to 60%.
Jo Adell crushes left-handed pitching. He has managed a .278 ISO and .949 OPS this year, and his numbers are trending even further upwards.
He has hit .342 with a .368 ISO and 19.2% barrel rate against southpaws over his last 25 games. Those outputs are out of this world.
Adell also has a great track record against Valdez, going 7-25 (.280 BA) with five extra-base hits.
Valdez’ high-ground ball rate does not scare me in this matchup.
Temperatures are expected to sit in the low 70s with winds blowing in. Advantage to the pitchers.
Cleveland has won nine of the past 13 games (+3.90 units, 20% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Tigers vs. Guardians.
| Location | Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026 |
| First pitch | 6:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | FOX |
| Tigers starting pitcher | Framber Valdez (8-10, 4.36 ERA) |
| Guardians starting pitcher | Parker Messick (11-8, 2.46 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 26 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today, we look at the history of jersey #26.
Let's take a look.
Andrej Nedorost - 2002-2003 - Drafted by Columbus in 2000.
Nedorost played 28 games for Columbus from 2001 to 2004. He also played parts of three seasons with the Syracuse Crunch. After his time with Columbus, he would never play another NHL game.
He left for Europe in 2004, where he began playing in Russia. He also played in Czechia, Sweden, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Poland. His last professional season was in 2015.
Todd Marchant - 2004-2006 - Drafted by the New York Rangers in 1993.
Marchant played 95 games for Columbus and totaled 43 points after signing in 2003.
Marchant refused to waive his no-trade clause, which would have allowed Columbus to send him to Anaheim as part of the Sergei Fedorov trade. After trading for Fedorov, Columbus placed Marchant on waivers to circumvent his no-trade clause. Anaheim picked Marchant up off waivers on November 21, 2005, to make him a Mighty Duck.
Derek MacKenzie - 2008-2009 - Drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999.
MacKenzie played 279 games over the course of seven seasons for Columbus. He signed with Columbus in 2007 and made his debut in December of that year.
He left for the Florida Panthers in 2014 and would play there until he retired in 2019. Later that year, he was named an asst. coach for Florida. He's spent the last two seasons as an asst. coach for the Nashville Predators.
Samuel Påhlsson - 2010-2012 - Drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996.
Påhlsson signed with Columbus in 2009 and played a total of 222 games. He was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2012, which would be his last NHL season.
He made a move to Europe in 2012 to play in Sweden. He played three seasons before retiring on April 16, 2015.
Corey Tropp - 2014-2015 - Drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 2007.
Tropp was claimed off waivers from the Buffalo Sabres on November 27, 2013. He would play a total of 105 games with Columbus, including 61 in 2014-15. On June 30, 2015, Tropp was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the deal that brought Brandon Saad to Columbus.
After spending three straight seasons in the AHL with the San Diego Gulls, Tropp left for Europe. He played a season in Germany and one in Poland before retiring.
Kyle Quincey - 2017 - Drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 2003.
Quincy played 20 games with the Jackets after being traded to Columbus from New Jersey on March 1, 2017. He played one year in Minnesota before leaving for Finland to play one more season. He retired after that one season in LIIGA.
Thomas Vanek - 2018 - Drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 2003.
Vanel was traded to the CBJ on February 26, 2018, from the Vancouver Canucks. He played a total of 19 games and had 15 points.
He signed a one-year deal with Detroit in 2019. That would be his final season in pro hockey. He is now a Hockey Operations Advisor for the San Jose Sharks.
Zac Dalpe - 2021 - Drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008.
The former Ohio State Buckeye forward played 25 games for the Jackets and had 4 career points.
Dalpe played in 133 games for the Monsters and had 100 points. For his career, he played 574 games and totaled 393 points. On July 7, 2025, Dalpe retired from hockey and was hired by the Seattle Kraken as a Development Coach. For this upcoming season, he was named Team Consultant by the Kraken. He will help young players find their footing in pro hockey by helping with apartments, bills, and everything else that comes with being new to the pro game.
There are 26 days until opening night at NWA.
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As the Yankees enter the season’s final month, a bullpen that’s been a strength throughout the year is running on fumes. Injuries to Fernando Cruz and Kervin Castro have further strained an already thin unit, forcing the Yankees to get creative in adding some veteran talent from outside their organization for the stretch run.
As I do each month in a given season, I’m going to take a look at the Yankees’ relievers to identify how manager Aaron Boone is deploying each and offer a verdict as to how much trust we can place in them moving forward using the following ranking system:
Statistics below are from August 6-September 2.
Recent stats: 10.2 IP, 3.38 ERA, 11 SO, 1.60 FIP, 6 Saves (in 7 opportunities)
After a couple of days off and with the rest of the bullpen gassed, Bednar came in to eat the eighth inning of what was then a 7-1 blowout at the hands of the Angels on Monday. He allowed three runs, inflating his stats in garbage time. The right-hander allowed only one other earned run all August, though, cementing his status as one of the game’s most reliable closers.
Confidence level: 5
No one in baseball has finished more games than Bednar’s 50 this year, and he’s done it while blowing just three saves. He isn’t as flashy as some of the game’s other elite late-inning arms, but he’s been as effective as any of them.
Recent stats: 12 IP, 4.50 ERA, 18 SO, 2.76 FIP
It’s been a choppier month than we’ve seen before from Headrick this year. Opponents hit .345 with a 1.015 OPS against him in August, a red flag for a pitcher who’s made the second-most appearances in baseball. Still, even after his uneven stretch, the southpaw’s ERA sits below 2.00.
Confidence level: 5
Headrick has shown enough to receive the benefit of the doubt here. Especially after the injury to Cruz, who was among MLB’s most-used relievers before his injury, fatigue is a legitimate concern. But in a tight AL East race, expect Boone to continue deploying his fireman in big spots.
Recent stats: 15.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 14 SO, 2.27 FIP
It’s been a rapid ascent for Blackburn, who began the season as the last man out of the bullpen and is now one of Boone’s most trusted relievers. He hasn’t skipped a beat since moving into a high-leverage role, allowing no earned runs across his last 16 appearances dating back to late July.
Confidence level: 4
Like other Yankees reclamation projects before him, Blackburn has been able to leverage his sinker into a skyrocketing ground ball rate. There’s no reason at this point to believe the tweaks he’s made are not sustainable.
Recent stats: 3.2 IP, 4.91 ERA, 4 SO, 6.10 FIP
A week and change ago, Fulmer was out of a job after the Angels cut him loose. Now, he’s the Yankees’ new shiny toy, with the New York Post’s Joel Sherman relaying that the team feels they saw things in his video that other teams missed. With a dearth of options, he’s been thrown right into the fire. The early results have not been encouraging.
Confidence level: 2
Fulmer has only made four appearance for the Yankees, so it’s too soon to say how valuable he will be. Any return to form would be a remarkable comeback for the 33-year-old, who’s appeared only sporadically in MLB since 2023.
Recent stats: 10 IP, 2.70 ERA, 3 SO, 4.40 FIP
Formerly ol’ reliable in this column, Hill’s stock took a major hit after a disastrous run from mid-May through mid-July in which he allowed 18 runs in 18 innings. He’s been better since, deployed strategically in mostly in lower-leverage spots.
Confidence level: 3
Hill is not a back-end reliever, and that should be OK. The crafty lefty still serves a useful role, particularly against lefty batters, who are hitting .205 with a .575 OPS against him this year.
Recent stats: 8.2 IP, 3.12 ERA, 5 SO, 3.33 FIP (with Kansas City and New York)
Another new kid on the block, Schreiber made his Yankees debut on Tuesday, pitching a clean ninth to close out a victory against the Angels. The 32-year-old brings with him a long track record of steady bullpen performance, including this season. Schreiber posted a 3.65 ERA and 117 ERA+ in 56 appearances with Kansas City before they placed him on waivers as they drifted out of contention.
Confidence level: 2.5
Some of Schreiber’s underlying metrics — including a .254 BABIP and 36:22 K:BB ratio with Kansas City — are cause for concern. Still, considering the Yankees got him for nothing, he’s a quality pickup given the slim pickings at this point in the season.
Recent stats: 9 IP, 5.00 ERA, 9 SO, 2.10 FIP
Yarbrough has been something of a shadow starter for most of the season, appearing once a week or so to pitch multiple innings in relief and then retreating to obscurity in the bullpen. A four-run blowup against the Red Sox last week jumped his season ERA nearly a half-run, underscoring the limits of his bag of tricks.
Confidence index: 2.5
Come playoff time, Yarbrough should only be seeing action if a game is out of hand. He’s been a perfectly serviceable placeholder this year, helping eat innings in a bullpen that’s seen its high performers used frequently.
Recent stats: 9.1 IP, 0.96 ERA, 12 SO (including minor leagues)
Gil’s wilderness period is over. After a disastrous start to the year for the Yankees and nearly four months spent on the IL, the team decided to bring their former Rookie of the Year back in a relief role. He tossed 7.1 scoreless innings across five appearances in the minors, and he made his return to the big leagues last Monday, allowing one run in two innings of work.
Confidence level: 1
Gil’s is such a bizarre case that it’s difficult to place any stock in him. While unquestionably talented, the 27-year-old has endured consecutive lost seasons. Until he can prove otherwise, his superlative 2024 campaign is the clear outlier. Time will tell if he can reinvent himself in his new role.
The Amazins opened a series against one of the few teams in the National League with a worse record than them in the San Francisco Giants, and they proved to be the superior mediocre team in game one with a 10-6 victory. Nolan McLean tossed six innings while giving up just two runs, and the Mets’ bats slugged a whopping five homers—including two from Francisco Alvarez.
Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, NY Post, MLB.com
The Mets officially announced that Jonah Tong will be recalled to the major leagues for a start on Monday.
David Stearns expressed optimism about the young core that has been propelling the Mets to their decent run over the past month.
Stearns also offered some comments on the team’s tentative thoughts regarding the 2027 infield.
The plan remains for Andy Green to return to the front office at season’s end, when a search for a full-time manager will begin.
A.J. Ewing sat last night as he continues to endure a rough second half.
The Mets may have traded away half their relief corps at the deadline, but the bullpen has actually performed better since then.
The Mets revealed their tentative 2027 spring training schedule which may very well be impacted by the impending lockout.
The Braves further cemented their NL East lead with a 5-2 win over the Phillies.
Phillies prospect Aidan Miller will finally take the field today after dealing with a back injury all season.
The Marlins’s effort to get themselves into the playoff picture took a hit with a 6-1 loss to the Cubs.
The Nationals fell to the Dodgers 5-3 despite some promising performances from a couple of their young pitchers.
The mighty Dodgers are facing some questions heading into the postseason.
This year’s playoff race has been impacted by numerous stars having down seasons compared to last year.
Arte Moreno is no longer the owner of the Angels after several years of meddling dragged the organization down.
CBS Sports published a thought-provoking article about Driveline and its hitting philosophy which has taken over many MLB clubs—for good and for ill.
Shohei Ohtani missed another game last night and might have an IL stint in his future.
The Rays have suffered a serious injury blow, as Shane McClanahan is hitting the injured list due to forearm tightness.
Justin Verlander is still determined to make his return to the mound for the Tigers before the end of the season.
The Yankees announced some of their plans for how they will commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this year.
Trent Grisham exited last night’s game with a right hamstring injury that could sideline him for a bit.
Minor league theme nights are all the rage these days, and one New Jersey team got in on the fun with a Sopranos themed night.
The Mets may have had a tough season, but at least they haven’t lost 40 consecutive games like the Red Pocket Mobiles in the Pioneer League.
Brian Salvatore previewed the weekend battle of not-so-giants featuring the Giants.
Joe Sokolowski provided his weekly installment of This Week in Mets Quotes.
The A Pod of Their Own crew discussed the expanded roster and everything else going on with the Mets this week on their latest episode.
Rubén Tejada hit the first of what would be ten career major league home runs on this date in 2010.
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The New York Mets are priced as a heavy 64% moneyline favorite for today's game at Citi Field against the San Francisco Giants, with Zac Thornton on the hill.
With Thornton consistently inducing weak contact, my Giants vs. Mets predictions are eyeing New York to grab their third straight victory.
Read more in my MLB picks for Saturday, Sep. 5.
For help understanding probabilities, see our odds calculator.
Zac Thornton has been excellent for the New York Mets, giving them a strong starting point tonight. Across his last 11 1/3 innings, the rookie owns a 2.91 FIP while holding opponents to a 28.6% hard-hit rate and 2.9% barrel rate.
The San Francisco Giants are in respectable offensive form, but they have struggled badly against left-handers, posting an 85 wRC+ this season.
Anthony Molina has held his own lately with a 3.80 xERA over his last two outings, but he does not typically work deep.
That brings the Giants’ bullpen in early, and the Mets’ offense owns a 103 wRC+ recently after scoring 20 runs over its last two games.
New York has the edge.
Play up to 65%.
COVERS INTEL: Thornton has walked just1.80 batters per nine innings at home this season, showing stronger command than his 2.53 road BB/9. That control should matter against a Giants lineup that is vulnerable vs lefties. I’m leaning Over 7.5 here, even with San Francisco’s issues against left-handed pitching.
Both offenses are sitting slightly above league average lately, and New York’s lineup has clearly woken up. The Mets also get an early look at Molina before San Francisco’s bullpen is forced into action.
Neither relief corps is falling apart, with New York posting a 3.87 FIP over its last 44 innings and San Francisco sitting in a similar range recently.
However, at 7.5, the number is low enough for one productive Mets night to carry this Over.
Play this pick up to 58%.
Juan Soto is a great play today.
The slugger has posted loud numbers lately, smacking two homers in the last week with a 57.1% hard-hit rate and 24.4% barrel rate. On top of that, his average launch angle during that span sits at 24.4 degrees.
That has translated to an impressive 64.3% FB rate, and Molina has allowed two bombs in his last three appearances. The righty has also allowed 56% of his contact through the air in the last two weeks, and the Giants' pen isn't untouchable, either.
Play down to 28%.
Weather at Citi Field looks clean for first pitch, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures falling from 80°F to 76°F. Winds sit around 8–9 mph, and rain chances are minimal at 0–2%. No delay concerns, with mostly neutral hitting conditions.
The New York Mets have hit the Moneyline in 20 of their last 35 games (+7.00 Units / 18% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Giants vs. Mets.
| Location | Citi Field, Queens, NY |
| Date | Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026 |
| First pitch | 4:10 p.m. ET |
| TV | NBCSBA, SNY |
| Giants starting pitcher | Anthony Molina (2-0, 3.77 ERA) |
| Mets starting pitcher | Zac Thornton (3-4, 2.93 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
Shohei Ohtani has missed the last two games, just the second time he’s been out for multiple games with the Dodgers, along with a two-game stint on the paternity list in April 2025. But it looks like Ohtani will probably miss Saturday as well, which would mark his longest absence since coming to Los Angeles.
Manager Dave Roberts told reporters after Friday’s game that he didn’t expect Ohtani to be in the lineup on Saturday, but would check with him on Saturday afternoon.
Kyle Tucker homered in the sixth inning on Friday, just his third home run at Dodger Stadium this season, and his first since June 15 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Tucker went 33 full games and 113 plate appearances between home home runs, hitting .177/.306/.195 with seven RBI between long balls at Dodger Stadium.
Mark Walter got the Pablo Torre treatment on Friday, with the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast delving into the Dodgers chairman and owner currently under federal investigation for his insurance dealings.
Torre’s podcast was a good overview of some well-worn territory, including how the Dodgers ownership group led by Walter bought the team in 2012, and landed an historic $8.35 billion television contract with Time Warner.
Among the notable finds in the podcast was a deal between Walter, Magic Johnson, and the life insurance company EquiTrust, which in 2025 was sold to Amistad Financial, the latter one of a number of companies connected to Walter under investigation.
Here’s the full episode of Torre’s podcast on Walter and the Dodgers ownership group.
As Walker Kessler walked onto UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, he stepped into the biggest spotlight he’s been under recently.
And as the Lakers’ marquee addition of the summer, the attention on Kessler will only grow as the start of the 2026-27 NBA season nears.
As part of the Dodgers’ “Lakers Night” ahead of their win over the Cardinals, Kessler, who sported a custom No. 14 Dodgers jersey with his last name on the back, threw out the ceremonial first pitch — a pitch that got across home plate.
Before the night ended, Kessler replied with a familiar acronym on the Dodgers’ Instagram post collaboration with him and the Lakers: “ITFDB” — It’s Time For Dodger Baseball.
A great way to introduce himself to his new home market.
But for Kessler to further ingratiate himself to Los Angeles fans, he’ll need to live up to the investment the Lakers made to acquire him from the Jazz in a sign-and-trade in July.
It’s a challenge Kessler is ready for.
As a reminder, the Lakers not only sent the Jazz two of their unprotected first-round draft picks (2031 and 2033), which were the last two first-rounders they had full control over to trade, along with two first-round pick swaps (2028 and 2030) to secure Kessler, but they also signed the 7-foot-2 big man to a four-year, $130 million contract.
The deal starts with a $30.1 million salary for 2026-27, making him the 10th-highest-paid center in the league (restricted free-agent big man Jalen Duren’s 2026-27 salary from his contract will likely meet or surpass Kessler’s).
A significant investment for a player who hasn’t made an All-Star, All-NBA or All-Defense team, and is coming off playing five games after having left shoulder surgery in November.
“It definitely makes you feel a certain way when you know an organization believes in you,” Kessler said in July. “And I think what they’ve invested, they’re showing that belief in a monetary value, not just with money, but like you said, assets. And for me, I’m somebody that if I know that they have that belief in me, I’m gonna run through a brick wall for them. That’s just how I’ve been wired my whole life, and it definitely makes it a lot easier to go out there and compete for a team.”
The tasks for Kessler to live up to the hype once the spotlight is back on him and the Lakers on the court starting next month aren’t complicated.
The first area is staying healthy, especially with minimal traditional big-man depth behind him and Kevon Looney, which should be easier for Kessler after suffering a season-ending torn posterior labrum in his left shoulder that required surgery.
His shoulder “feels better than it’s ever felt in my life,” with Kessler sharing he originally suffered the injury in college but played through it before it got worse over the previous year. Outside of last season, Kessler played 192 regular-season games (65 games per season) in his first three years with the Jazz — with many absences being the result of Utah’s late-season tanking.
The Lakers will also need Kessler to continue the progress he’s made offensively, which included glimpses of being a 3-point shooting threat last season. He attempted 1.6 3s per game in 2025-26 compared with 0.3 3s per game in his first three seasons.
But ultimately, the Lakers will need Kessler to continue to be one of the league’s best rim protectors — which he has been since being the No. 22 pick in 2022.
The Lakers’ path to having a respectable — or even above-average — defense rests on Kessler fortifying his squad on that end of the floor with shot-blocking, rim protection and versatility.
But as for Kessler the human being, the last few months have been significant for him for multiple reasons.
Not only did he join the Lakers on a big contract but he also got engaged in July to 2025 Miss America Abbie Stockard.
Kessler will remain teammates with fellow Lakers acquisition Collin Sexton after they were on the Jazz together for three seasons (2022-25) and be teammates with Lakers star guard Austin Reaves again after they played for Team USA during the 2023 World Cup.
“He’s a big, goofy dude that just enjoys life and has fun,” Reaves said of Kessler. “Obviously you see what he does basketball-wise and how he impacts the game. He’s good defensively, good in the pocket. Just a smart player. So, I’m happy to have him on the team and get to play with him.”
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It's another full slate of games across the Majors, and I've pinpointed three quality picks in my MLB player props analysis.
I'm eyeing Martin Perez to carve up a divisional rival, while Jacob deGrom should find his best once again in Arlington, and Alex Bregman also gets a solid matchup as he looks to keep swinging a hot bat.
Read more in my MLB picks for Saturday, Sep. 5.
| Player | Pick | Odds |
|---|---|---|
 Martin Perez | Under 2.5 earned runs | -122 |
 Jacob deGrom | Under 1.5 earned runs | +111 |
 Alex Bregman | Over 1.5 total bases | +131 |
Atlanta Braves lefty Martin Perez has been holding it down lately. While his underlying metrics suggest otherwise, the veteran owns a 1.86 ERA across his last two starts.
In fact, he's also allowed one earned run or fewer in five of his last six appearances. One difficult outing during that span inflated his xERA, but Perez has looked dominant in recent starts.
Perez has allowed minimal barrels, and he already tossed six scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this season.
Play up to -140.
Jacob deGrom has had issues at times this season, but when he's at home, the righty has been utterly dominant. The Texas Rangers starter owns a 2.13 FIP at Globe Life Field this season.
Two of deGrom's last three home outings were scoreless gems, and he also allowed just one earned run in the other. The former Cy Young winner will now face a Tampa Bay Rays lineup that is in very poor offensive form, compiling an 85 wRC+ across the last week.
Expect another gem from the 38-year-old.
Play down to +100.
The Chicago Cubs' offense is hot in general, and Alex Bregman is playing a massive part. The third baseman has a ridiculous .692 ISO and .423 average over his last six contests.
Of his 11 hits during that span, eight have been for extra bases. He's smacked three doubles and five home runs. Bregman has cashed the Over in total bases in four of his previous five games.
Bregman faces Ryan Gusto tonight, who has a vulnerable 4.54 xERA over the last month. The Miami Marlins pen is also shaky at the moment.
The slugger will stay hot.
Play down to +110.
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
These are the results to the Hawks Reacts survey posted earlier this week.
The Hawks wheeled and dealt this offseason, offloading former number one pick Zaccharie Risacher, picking up a pair of players of the 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder championship team, and adding a group of exciting rookies.
But were all the moves the right moves? That was the question I asked the loyal readers of this here Hawks blog. And once all the votes were tallied, a majority of you picked the same letter grade.
The message is clear: the offseason was a solid double but not a home run.
This post is sponsored by Fanduel.
Welcome to Inside the Suns, a deep-dive analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team in which the Fantable — a roundtable of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
zenzino: Wait and see is my opinion. My guess is that Green will at least begin the season as a starter and they make adjustments as needed. I’m trusting the process.
I know fans are desperate for a point guard alongside Book. But CG isn’t that type of playmaking point guard. Very few of those types of point guards even exist anymore. Luka, SGA, Steph, Murray, and Fox are all “point guards” in the league. Old heads would definitely call those guys shooting guards.
I actually like CG coming off the bench. He always comes out with energy and can get going at any time. We know for a fact that Green plays better when he gets going early. Why put him at a disadvantage?
PHNX Suns podcast had an interesting idea: With the Clippers in disarray, and the fact that Ty Lue is on record as a huge Jalen Green fan, maybe the Suns can work a trade for Darius Garland. Too bad they gave up their 2031 pick. That would be pretty attractive to the Cheats (Clips), and Garland is the right kind of point guard to put next to Book.
Ashton: This has been hashed and rehashed in the comment sections for months. Adding in the recent poll with player SunsRank based on tiers, a surprising number of commentators placed CG in the tier one “cornerstone” category.
I am sorry, but what? Sure, it is a good thought experiment to maybe start CG alongside Book for Summer League. Or even better, let’s see how CG operates the offense alongside Green while Book plays the sixth man and sells colorways from his car trunk in his free time. If you haven’t paid attention, Nike stock has severely tanked since last year (like a certain mortgage company), so this might be the best time to get his signature colorways to the market.
But common all, you don’t sit a 36-million-dollar player on the bench to play the sixth man role. It is critically important that Booker and Green develop synergy and flow with their court play through more minutes together. If it fails because Green is not actually a PG (or Book)? Okay, let’s rehash the CG as a starter conversation again.
OldAz: I should be rich, famous, and running a Fortune 500 company, as long as we are discussing things that will never happen. I understand the sentiment behind this, as it keeps Booker locked into his more natural shooting guard position, which is probably the biggest single thing the Suns can do to improve their chances of winning. But the reality is that this one thing is not enough to sustain winning game after game anyway. Also, it ignores the bigger factor…that Green is still a far superior player overall than Collin, and in the NBA that matters a lot when it comes to starting and finishing games. Maybe too much, to be honest, which is partly what fuels this sentiment.
In reality, Book should only play about 30 minutes a game, same with Green (maybe a little less coming off injury), and Gillespie should be in that same range. That’s 80-90 minutes combined for 3 players in a 48-minute game. Â For those math-challenged, that’s 80-90 of the 96 minutes accounted for. If somehow all of Booker’s minutes were with Collin on the floor, then there would only be 18 minutes or so left for Green (so he’s not playing enough) and no one of similar quality to play with. And, just like Book, he needs minutes with a true PG on the floor, which would also benefit Green in many of the same ways.
Accordingly, to me it’s not a question of who starts (or even who finishes, which should 100% depend on matchups and who is playing well in that game). It is really about rotations and minutes distribution. Hey Jalen and Book, you are both starting, but we will probably be subbing out one of you for Collin at the 5-minute mark depending on who has it rolling. This seems like a far greater strategy to me. Then, by the end of the game, Book and Collin have been on the floor about 12-15 minutes together, Green and Collin have been on the floor about 12-15 minutes together, and Book and Green have been on the floor 10-15 minutes together, with perhaps some additional minutes here and there where Book or Green are with a different backup guard. In this scenario, who cares who starts?
There, I just belched out a bunch of words about a topic that’s not likely to happen and probably doesn’t make much difference even if it did.
Rod: I’m not really against that idea but unless Gillespie by far outplays Green in training camp and the preseason games, I wouldn’t start the season that way. With both Green and Book missing significant time due to injuries, that backcourt combo hardly had a chance to play together, and I still want to see how it will work out this season. If it doesn’t work well, there will be plenty of time to make changes during the season.
I also think that Ott’s play rotation schemes will be more important than who actually starts. His being flexible with his substitutions should be more of a key to winning than the starting lineup.
zenzino: I put CBS Sports in the same category as ESPN as far as their thoughts and opinions. Pretty irrelevant.
Clearly, the writer is a Nets fan. 11 spots higher than the Suns? Bring in Harden when they already had Kyrie, and then trade him for Ben Simmons half a season later? What are they even doing there besides wasting all the draft capital they acquired on really, really stupid picks? The Suns got back into the playoffs, and the Nets are still chasing their tails in the basement.
The Clippers 10 spots higher? Let’s shelve the cheating for a minute. Even without the 5 picks they lost, they still essentially paid 5 firsts, 2 swaps, and a 2-time MVP for Kawhi to take them to a single Conference Final in seven seasons and get beat by the Suns.
I get it, it’s going to take more than one season of alignment to erase the “swing for the fences” that went terribly wrong. And the FO deserves a ton of condemnation for the Bradley Beal trade, which is inexcusable given it happened after the new CBA. Not to mention 3 head coaches in 3 years.
This season brought some much-needed continuity but also an eyebrow-raising trade for Miles Bridges. I’m on record as not being a huge fan of this trade. I alluded to in the previous question: what if the Suns still had that first-round pick to dangle in front of whoever is going to run the Clippers for Garland?
However, I think Bridges is an underrated passer and playmaker. Time will tell. I am hopeful that it will work out.
Two years ago, 4th from the bottom would have been about right. While I still think they are in the bottom half of the class, they are climbing. If they make it into the playoffs (without going through the play-in) this season, they climb into the top half.
Ashton: I am assuming the link will be included in this question, and it is worth reading. CBS Sports can be scathing or misguided in its analysis, but I generally like Sam Quinn’s takes. In this case, I agree with the writer.
While being very detailed on topics that I will not cover here, it does require that fans zoom out to see the whole picture. Taken as a whole, there have been some really bad decisions. Is the Suns FO doing okay on the fringes? Sure. But MI’s swing-and-miss rosters are just horrendous. So bad that the Suns were only the fifth-worst FO last year. I guess there are not a lot of pundits who are fans of the Mile Bridges trade.
Again, if you want to start your day off in a bad mood, read the piece.
OldAz: I read the article. I challenge you to go read the article (if you haven’t yet) and then come back and tell me any specific thing they got wrong about the Suns. Even if you support many of the moves they have made, or have patience with their overall plan, that write-up was immensely fair.
My only quibble was the article still claiming KD was a top 5 talent when the Suns traded for him, without providing any actual, non-emotion-based evidence. He was certainly great and more talented than many others on the floor, but he was also well past his prime and not at all worth what they gave up in players and certainly not in players plus draft capital; but that kinda reinforces the article’s point, even though most of that front office was different.
The article does rightly praise many of the Suns’ moves, but is 100% right in calling out their asset management and throwing away draft capital time and again, trying to patch up the boat and keep it afloat a little while longer. I hope it all works out, but from a front office standpoint, that article seemed to be spot on and fair to me. Somebody get some duct tape for Ishbia and change the locks to the basketball operations building, and maybe reevaluate them in a few years because they have been trying to catch up ever since that Herschel Walker-style KD trade.
Rod: I really don’t agree with his conclusion…unless you’re including Mat Ishbia as part of the front office. I believe Brian Gregory has done a fine job, considering the situation he’s in. Ishbia has bluntly stated that the Suns will do their best to be a competitive team. That forces Gregory and his staff to focus on short-term improvements rather than working on a full-blown, long-term rebuild plan.
While I consider some of his moves “questionable” (such as the trade for Miles Bridges), the overall direction in which Gregory and the FO are headed is one they were directed to take by Ishbia. In that context, I certainly wouldn’t rate the Suns’ front office this badly.
zenzino: That probably goes for the coaches as well as the players.
Man, everyone has opinions on this (most of them colored by sour grapes), yet none of us were in the locker room or on the planes. This “locker room cancer” narrative is full-on conjecture and speculation. KD wasn’t the problem in Brooklyn. He wasn’t a problem in GS. He wasn’t a problem in OKC. And Houston…Udoka isn’t known for his smooth ways.
I’m not saying KD is an upstanding team leader. He’s not. He’s a man-child who just wants to hoop and play video games (and troll on social media).
Budenholzer was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad coach for the Suns. Imagine if BG, Ott, and the alignment had come a season earlier. BG and Ott probably could have done great things with that roster (terrible things but great).
I don’t think it had much to do with them being “older veterans”.
In a leadership vacuum, everyone just does their own thing. The HC wasn’t leading. KD isn’t a team leader; never has been. Never will be. Book is a floor leader but not a vocal locker room leader. Beal seemed to be too busy worrying about himself. Everyone else was just along for the ride.
That would never happen in the Brian Gregory era.
Ashton: I have tuned out KD for a while now, but I truly doubt his sincerity in this statement. Is this a backhanded apology that is really fostering partial blame on the other veterans? Houston, I suspect you will have a problem when it comes to the locker room dynamics. How many coaches did the Suns cycle through? KD could have just simplified that statement with “I was stuck in my ways”.
At least John Voita does not have to worry about being blocked by KD’s Twitter account anymore. As for me? I have already blocked KD out of my head.
OldAz: I feel like that is the most introspective, honest, and least self-serving thing I’ve ever heard that man say. There must be some missing context where he blames anyone else because that’s the closest I have heard to him taking at least some personal accountability for how things worked (or didn’t work) here.
His first half-season, where he got hurt and really never got time to gel with Monty and the team, was their best chance at winning, but that is partially because they didn’t have time for what KD’s answer touches on to really set in. Once they had an off-season and that laid-back “unbothered” attitude took hold, the rot and stink quickly followed as unbothered became uninterested and entitled and just plain boring, bad basketball. That has never described Booker: before the Suns got CP3, during their high points, or since KD has left.
I guess only some veterans “do their own thing” to that extent, but then again it was probably someone else’s responsibility to fix it in the moment, and certainly not appropriate for the fans to point out by booing how boring it is to watch veterans just “do their own thing” instead of playing connected as a team.
Whew – I sure am glad that era of Suns basketball is in the past, and a little bit encouraged by one soundbite that at least looks like belated accountability.
Rod: I’ve got to give him credit for not trying to dodge any of the responsibility for the Suns’ failure back then…and for not pointing fingers at others who I think played a big part in that failure. Jones built a flawed team, Ishbia went along with it (if not actually orchestrating it) and Budenholzer really didn’t seem to do much to try and actually control things. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the KD era crash and burn.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
On September 6, 1977, the Suns acquired point guard Don Buse from the Indiana Pacers for Ricky Sobers. Buse would miss just one game in three seasons for Phoenix while averaging 8.0 points, 4.4 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. In 1979, he helped take the Suns deep into the playoffs before losing 4-3 in the Western Conference Finals to the Seattle Supersonics, who went on to win the NBA Finals 4-1 against the Washington Bullets. Buse is still 3rd on the Suns’ All-Time list for career steals per game with 1.93 per game.
On September 7, 2004, the Suns signed super-speedy Summer League standout and Japanese-born PG Yuta Tabuse. Yuta was in Dallas’ training camp before being cut and was with Denver in the preseason in 2003 before signing with the ABA’s Long Beach Jam, where he averaged 5.3 pts and 6.3 asts in 2003. He scored seven points in his first NBA game against the Atlanta Hawks on November 3, 2004, becoming on that day the first Japanese player ever to play in an NBA regular-season game.
He was later waived by the Suns on December 16, 2004, after playing in just four games, averaging 1.8 pts, 1.0 rebs, and 0.8 asts in 4.3 minutes per game. Suns assistant coach Marc Iavaroni said of Tabuse, “I liked his energy, I liked his courage.”
Tabuse would eventually return to Japan, where he continued to play professionally until 2018 and played on two Japanese League Championship teams, winning Finals MVP honors in 2010.
Sept. 28 – Media Day
Sept. 29 – Training Camp opens
Oct. 5 – Suns @ Pistons (preseason) 4:00 PM
Oct. 7 – Suns @ Bulls (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 10 – Suns vs. Spurs (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 14 – Suns @ Spurs (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 16 – Suns vs. Jazz (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 20 – 2026-27 NBA Season Begins
Dec. 15 – Most players signed to new contracts can be traded
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Jan. 15 – All players signed to new contracts can be traded
Feb. 11 – Trade Deadline
Feb. 19-21 – NBA All-Star 2027
Two months ago, Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP) looked close to running out of things to prove in Triple-A.
Condon was coming off a June in which he hit .337/.462/.814 with 10 home runs in 106 plate appearances.
The power expected from the third-overall pick in the 2024 draft had arrived without Condon abandoning the patience that carried him through a quieter start to the season.
Eventually, though, pitchers found a response.
After posting a 1.276 OPS in June, Condon fell to .758 in July and .695 in August. Ten home runs in one month became four over the next two.
Condon has not homered since Aug. 6.
The downturn has been even sharper recently. Over the last 30 days, Condon is hitting .200/.330/.300 with a 56 wRC+. Even so, his full Triple-A season still sits at .267/.387/.496 with a 113 wRC+.
This is still the best power season of Condon’s professional career. His 22 home runs, .496 slugging percentage and .883 OPS are all career highs, as are his 117 games and 446 at-bats. He is also playing deeper into a season than he ever has as a professional.
So, what changed?
The June breakout did not come from a major change in how pitchers attacked Condon.
Through May 22, he was hitting .239/.369/.377 with four home runs in 195 plate appearances. From May 23 through the end of June, he hit .351/.474/.865 with 14 home runs in 137 plate appearances.
His zone rate moved only from 47.6% to 49.5%, while breaking-ball usage barely changed.
Condon changed.
| Metric | Through May 22nd | May 23–June 30 |
| Chase rate | 19.7% | 16.0% |
| Whiff rate | 32.0% | 23.8% |
| Hard-hit rate | 42.7% | 51.8% |
| Barrel rate | 6.4% | 16.9% |
| Avg. launch angle | 9.4° | 15.5° |
| Ground-ball rate | 48.2% | 34.9% |
He chased less, missed less and elevated more of the contact he did make.
Early in the season, nearly half of Condon’s tracked balls in play were on the ground. During the power surge, that fell to roughly one-third. His contact got harder at the same time, and his barrel rate nearly tripled.
The recent downturn has not fully undone that adjustment. Condon’s ground-ball rate remained between 34.0% and 38.5% in July and August, while his average launch angle stayed near 14 degrees.
He is still lifting the ball. The pitches available for him to drive have changed.
The response was not a wholesale change in pitch selection.
Breaking balls accounted for 36.8% of the pitches Condon saw in June and 39.5% in August. Their usage with no strikes was identical in both months.
The difference became more pronounced later in the count. With two strikes, breaking-ball usage increased from 36.1% in June to 45.6% in August.
The bigger change was location.
Condon saw 49.0% of all pitches in the strike zone during June. That fell to 42.1% in August.
The decline appeared at every stage of the count. August’s zone rate fell to 45.8% with no strikes, 40.9% with one strike and 37.7% with two.
It also cut across the pitches Condon saw most often. The zone rate on four-seamers fell from 50.4% in June to 41.1% in August. Sliders dropped from 44.3% to 38.4%, while sinkers went from 66.7% to 47.5%.
The adjustment shows up in repeat matchups.
On June 21, Ryan Weiss gave Condon a first-pitch four-seamer in the zone. Condon hit it at 97.9 mph for a single. In his three later plate appearances against Weiss, Weiss threw only one four-seamer, located it outside the zone and started Condon with three different pitches. Condon went 0-for-2 with a walk.
Brandon McPherson followed a similar path. Condon hit an in-zone four-seamer 101.7 mph for a single in June. When they met again in August, McPherson threw only five of 14 pitches in the zone and finished an eight-pitch strikeout with a cutter below it.
The 10 pitchers Condon faced in June and again in July or August reduced their collective zone rate from 49.3% to 43.3%. Their four-seam zone rate fell from 55.0% to 37.5%.
Condon followed them.
His chase rate climbed from 15.0% in June to 24.5% in August. That is not an extreme rate on its own, but the nearly 10-point increase came as pitchers were giving him fewer strikes.
If pitchers had merely stopped giving Condon hittable pitches, his decline could mostly be explained by opportunity.
His contact quality declined, too.
His average exit velocity on balls in play fell from 91.7 mph in June to 86.7 mph in August. His hard-hit rate dropped from 52.4% to 27.7%.
Four-seam fastballs remain the pitch Condon has handled best.
Although Condon’s hard-hit rate against them declined, his expected slugging on four-seam contact remained strong. He can still hurt the pitch. He simply received fewer four-seamers in the strike zone.
The sharper deterioration came against sliders and changeups.
Condon’s hard-hit rate against sliders fell from 46.2% in June to 20.8% across July and August. Against changeups, it dropped from 71.4% to 18.8%, while his whiff rate more than doubled.
The June changeup sample included only seven balls in play, so the exact size of the decline should be treated carefully.
Condon’s issues against secondary pitches are not limited to one shape.
| Pitch | Usage | xwOBA | Whiff% | Hard Hit% |
| Four-seam | 27.5% | .386 | 26.9% | 53.7% |
| Slider | 23.4% | .375 | 40.3% | 34.4% |
| Changeup | 11.0% | .271 | 37.0% | 23.7% |
| Sweeper | 8.2% | .297 | 40.6% | 31.8% |
| Curveball | 5.3% | .195 | 40.6% | 0.0% |
Condon’s swing-and-miss stands out less because of one extreme weakness than because it remains elevated across the board. His whiff rate sits between 37.0% and 40.6% against sliders, changeups, sweepers and curveballs.
Across a comparison group of 20 Triple-A hitters, the average whiff rates were 32.6% against sliders, 30.7% against curveballs, 30.1% against sweepers and 29.1% against changeups. Condon sits roughly eight to 11 percentage points higher against all four.
Individual hitters in that group showed worse numbers against particular pitches, but many had considerably more variation from one secondary pitch to another. Condon does not.
The hard-hit comparison is less concerning against most secondary pitches. Condon is only a few points below the group against sliders, changeups, and sweepers. Against sliders, his .375 xwOBA and 34.4% hard-hit rate show that he can still do damage when he connects. Curveballs stand apart, producing a .195 xwOBA and no hard-hit balls in the tracked sample.
Overall, the issue was not simply more breaking balls. Pitchers changed where and when they used them. They reduced the number of hittable four-seamers he saw, leaned on secondary pitches to change the shape of the at-bat and increasingly forced him to deal with pitches he was less likely to drive.
The path back to harder contact likely starts with pitch selection. As Condon expanded more often, he put more difficult pitches into play — pitches he could reach, but not necessarily drive.
That will not solve everything. He also has to do more damage against the sliders and changeups that do enter his hitting window.
Pitchers have changed how they attack Condon.
For much of July and August, it worked.
That does not erase the adjustment Condon made earlier in the season. His launch-angle gains have largely held even as the quality of his contact declined. That decline has carried into September. Through his first four games of the month, Condon is 2-for-15 with seven strikeouts.
Thursday offered one encouraging sign. Condon lined a slider to center field at 103.9 mph for his 22nd double, providing a reminder that he can still punish the pitch when he gets one to hit. It does not mean he has adjusted back, but it gives him something to build on over the final weeks of the season.
There will be plenty of time this offseason to speculate about where Condon fits into the Rockies’ plans for 2027 and beyond.
For now, the more immediate question is simpler.
Pitchers adjusted to him.
The rest of September gives Condon a chance to start adjusting back.
Triple-A:Albuquerque Isotopes 11, Tacoma Rainiers 6
The Albuquerque Isotopes (66-70) erased a 3-2 deficit with five runs in the fifth inning and pulled away for an 11-6 win over the Tacoma Rainiers (65-71) on Friday night. Tyler Freeman delivered the go-ahead blow with a two-run single, and Braxton Fulford followed with a three-run homer that stretched the lead to 7-3.
Fulford added a solo homer in the seventh to finish 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI. Drew Avans went 4-for-5 with four runs scored and a homer, Roc Riggio collected three hits with two doubles, and Sterlin Thompson went 2-for-4 with a double, walk, RBI and stolen base. Freeman drove in two, while Charlie Condon went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
Eiberson Castellano earned the win after allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings while striking out four. Albuquerque’s bullpen allowed three runs over the final four innings, with TJ Shook recording the final five outs without allowing a run. The Isotopes finished with 14 hits, four home runs and went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position while leaving just five men on base. Tacoma went 4-for-17 with runners in scoring position, stranded 11 runners and struck out seven times.
Double-A:Hartford Yard Goats 4, Reading Fightin Phils 3
The Hartford Yard Goats (63-66) walked off the Reading Fightin Phils (65-64), 4-3, after surrendering the tying run in the top of the ninth. Zach Kokoska opened the bottom of the inning with his second double of the night, moved to third on Jimmy Obertop’s sacrifice bunt and scored the winning run when Jared Thomas was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Kokoska went 2-for-3 with two doubles, three runs scored, an RBI and a walk, and was at the center of Hartford’s offense throughout the night. His RBI double tied the game 2-2 in the seventh before Kyle Karros followed later in the inning with an RBI double to put the Yard Goats ahead. GJ Hill also doubled home a run, while Jack O’Dowd went 0-for-4. Hartford finished with seven hits, went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine.
Konner Eaton turned in a strong start, allowing one run on four hits and two walks over six innings while striking out five. Hunter Mann followed with five strikeouts of his own in two innings, allowing one run, before Fidel Ulloa worked the ninth. Ulloa surrendered Caleb Ricketts’ game-tying solo homer but struck out two and picked up the win after Hartford answered in the bottom half. Yard Goats pitching combined for 12 strikeouts and held Reading to 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, although the Fightin Phils left eight runners on base.
High-A:Spokane Indians 7, Everett AquaSox 6
The Spokane Indians (57-72) erased a five-run deficit and walked off the Everett AquaSox (66-64), 7-6, with two runs in the ninth. Everett led 6-1 after four innings, but Spokane chipped away with a run in the sixth and three more in the eighth before Ethan Hedges tied the game with an RBI single in the ninth. Wilder Dalis followed with a sharp single to left to bring home Max Belyeu with the winning run.
Alan Espinal helped fuel the comeback, going 1-for-4 with a two-run triple in the eighth that cut the deficit to 6-4. Kelvin Hidalgo followed with an RBI groundout to make it a one-run game. Dalis finished 2-for-5 with a double and the walk-off RBI, while Tommy Hopfe went 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk. Hedges added a hit, walk and RBI, and Jacob Hinderleider went 2-for-4. Spokane finished with 10 hits, went 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
Angel Jimenez struggled through five innings, allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out three. The bullpen kept Spokane in it from there: Alberto Pacheco worked two scoreless innings, Austin Emener added a scoreless eighth, and Seth Clausen struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth. Spokane pitching combined for seven strikeouts, while Everett went 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight.
Single-A:San Jose Giants 8, Fresno Grizzlies 5 (10 innings)
The Fresno Grizzlies (69-61) rallied from an early three-run deficit and forced extra innings, but the San Jose Giants (82-48) scored four times in the 10th to pull away for an 8-5 win.
Daniel Jackson continued his strong debut season, going 2-for-4 with a walk, a stolen base and a run scored. He singled and stole second in the fourth before scoring on a Cort MacDonald single, then added another hit in the 10th. Cristian Arguelles went 2-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI, Ashly Andujar collected two hits, and Jack Natili drove in Fresno’s final run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th. The Grizzlies finished with 10 hits, went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.
Brady Parker gave Fresno six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and one walk while striking out seven. Manuel Olivares covered the final four innings and struck out six, but San Jose got to him for five runs, four earned, including four in the 10th. Fresno pitching combined for 13 strikeouts and just two walks, but the late damage was enough to spoil the comeback.
Veteran Catcher Providing ‘Good Vibrations’ for Rockies in Last-Place Year | SI.com
Ryan Boman of Sports Illustrated profiles Brett Sullivan’s long road to the Rockies, the veteran presence he has brought to the clubhouse and whether he could stick around beyond this season. With Hunter Goodman established as the starter, Sullivan has still carved out value as a backup catcher and steady, upbeat voice on a young team.
Baltimore Orioles Manager Craig Albernaz Drops Blunt Quote After Series Loss To Rockies | heavy.com
Scott Roche of Heavy looks at Baltimore’s frustration after dropping two of three to the Rockies, including Wednesday’s 11-inning walk-off loss. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz called the defeat “very disappointing” as Baltimore missed a chance to gain ground in a crowded AL Wild Card race.
Gabriel Hughes still in search of first MLB win | purplerow.com
Duane DaPron of Purple Row looks at Gabriel Hughes’ continued search for his first major-league win after another encouraging outing against Baltimore. Hughes allowed just one run over 4.2 innings, and DaPron examines both the progress Hughes has shown and the lessons the rookie is taking from a difficult August as he tries to establish himself in the rotation.
All 30 teams set to open Spring Training 2027 on same day | MLB.com
Brent Maguire of MLB.com breaks down the newly released 2027 Spring Training schedule, with all 30 teams set to open play on Feb. 19. The schedule also includes several exhibition games at MLB parks before the regular season begins March 24.
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A few months after Mark Walter became the chairman and majority owner of the Dodgers, he was told a fan in one of Dodger Stadium’s upper decks was upset about a mix-up with his tickets.
On most days, that would be an issue for an usher to handle. Not on this day.
Walter and team president Stan Kasten decided to address the problem, climbing the narrow stairwell to the top level where they found the fan and listened to his complaint.
“Obviously the guy was floored just to see me, let alone to see Mark,” Kasten said. “Mark, he’s incredibly comfortable around people. Not just his peers, but average fans. Because he considers himself an average fan.”
The Dodgers’ billionaire owner, hardly an average fan, is under intense scrutiny these days, following the sale of his controlling interest in the Lakers and a federal investigation into his business dealings. The drama has come as a surprise to some who know Walter, who has earned respect for his financial acumen and, despite his purchases of high-profile sports teams, has tended to dodge publicity.
He put together the ownership group that bought the Dodgers in 2012. Since the purchase, the team has played in five World Series, winning three, and finished first in the National League West 12 times in 14 seasons. It’s the greatest sustained run of excellence in baseball in more than a generation.
If the Dodgers win a third straight World Series this fall, they will become the first team to three-peat this century. And much of the credit for that would go to Walter, who has funded a front office that consistently has outspent the rest of Major League Baseball, signing seven players to contracts worth more than $2 billion combined in the last six years alone.
Now Walter faces questions about his future owning the Dodgers. Last month, his companies became the focus of two federal inquiries and a Delaware insurance regulatory review.
He is helping pay off some of his companies’ loans and sold the Lakers at a record valuation of $12.5 billion, a deal Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, says was not forced by the inquiries. Still, the sale raised questions about whether he will sell his ownership stakes in other sports properties, including English soccer club Chelsea, the Cadillac Formula One racing team, the WNBA’s Sparks and the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Walter declined to comment for this article.
Kasten insists Walter has no plans to divest from the Dodgers. “The sports portfolio is going to remain intact,” Kasten said. “It’s important to Mark. I can’t tell you how important the Dodgers are to him.”
Still, Kasten acknowledges the decision to sell the Lakers to former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner just 14 months after agreeing to buy the team “was not a planned thing,” either.
Like most of the middle-class kids in the class of 1978 at Jefferson High in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Walter worked in high school.
“He pumped gas and he played golf,” recalled Cathy Boland Polito, Walter’s date for the senior prom who is now a retired medical technologist living in Oro Valley, Ariz.
Walter hardly stood out in his graduating class of about 350 students. He was athletic but not a stud. He was a good student, especially in math, but not a nerd.
“He was friendly. He was nice,” Polito said. “Everybody sort of knew him.”
Walter went to Creighton University , where he studied accounting and business while playing intramural sports and participating in the philosophy society. Three years later, he earned a law degree from Northwestern.
Walter met his wife, Kimbra, in Chicago, where they raised their daughter, Samantha.
After a decade split between a Chicago law firm and First Chicago Capital Markets, a financial services and securities brokerage, Walter founded an investment firm, Liberty Hampshire Co., in 1996. While there he met J. Todd Morley, who connected him with the Guggenheim family fortune. The introduction quickly led to the formation of Guggenheim Partners, an investment and advisory financial services firm that works with insurance services, among other assets, and one that has a Wall Street reputation for being low-key but aggressive.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic closed Guggenheim’s offices, the lobby of the firm’s Chicago headquarters on the 49th floor of the AT&T Center boasted one of Monet’s “Water Lilies” paintings, which hung behind the receptionist’s desk inside a glass case with an alarm. A Picasso brightened another office upstairs.
A company insider not authorized to speak publicly told The Times in 2012 that Walter was a disciplined, focused and careful investor.
“He is a guy with one of the great financial minds of our time,” the person said.
For Walter, 66, who grew up playing youth baseball about 50 miles from the Iowa cornfield that became Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams,” that financial success was all well and good. But the longtime Chicago Cubs season-ticket holder really was a die-hard baseball fan whose dream was to own a sports franchise.
Walter first explored a purchase of the Houston Astros, who eventually were sold to Houston businessman Jim Crane for $615 million ahead of the 2012 season. So Walter pivoted and formed Guggenheim Baseball Management, a group that included Kasten, Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, movie producer Peter Guber and investors Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly, to buy the Dodgers for $2.15 billion, a record at the time, in March 2012. Part of the money Walter invested in the deal came from the insurers he controlled, although that deal was vetted by state insurance regulators.
MLB engineered the sale of the Dodgers after previous owner Frank McCourt filed for bankruptcy.
“The market drove the price,” Walter told The Times after the sale closed, calling the investment “a multigenerational thing my daughter’s granddaughters will own.” Walter’s daughter, who grew up joining family trips to Los Angeles for Dodgers games, is a marketing manager at TWG Global.
Today, the team is the most lucrative in the sport and is on pace to become just the second this century to draw more than 4 million fans in consecutive seasons. The Dodgers could be sold for a valuation of $10 billion to $13 billion — at the higher end, three times as much as the record sale price for a major league team — an industry source told The Times on the condition of anonymity.
Through it all, Walter mostly has shunned attention. The exception is participating in on-field championship celebrations and joining the team for trips to the White House during the Trump and Biden administrations.
His smooth run was interrupted during the Dodgers’ run to the 2024 World Series when Walter suffered a stroke that kept him from the victory celebration. His recovery reportedly was arduous; Walter struggled to speak clearly for months and didn’t return to public view until the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Japan the following spring.
Walter didn’t publicly step down from any roles after the stroke, holding on to control of a vast portfolio. Since buying the Dodgers, he has invested in European soccer, women’s hockey and basketball, squash and auto racing. He also bought several historic buildings in the resort town of Crested Butte, Colo., where he and his philanthropist wife own a home. In 2013, the couple purchased the Wild Oak Plantation, a 17,000-acre wildlife preserve in northeast Florida, where the Walters now spend most of their time.
Kimbra has served on the boards of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, OneGoal nonprofit and Goodman Theatre and is active in the family’s charitable organization, TWF Causes, which focuses on social impact and conservation work, including owning or supporting several major conservation and private reserve properties in Africa.
The family has a limited political footprint, with Walter donating to the Democratic National Committee and the campaigns of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and then-Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. The majority of their donations, however, run through their family foundation and the Dodgers Foundation.
“For us, my wife and I, and all of my partners believe that corporations have to be corporate citizens, and individuals who benefit from them, or who have built them, need to give back,” Walter told ESPN soon after buying the Dodgers. “You can’t take it with you, and you ought to do something philanthropic with it.”
But while he’s put money into charitable projects, he’s invested his heart and soul in the Dodgers, Kasten said.
“He cares deeply about it,” the Dodgers president said. “He’s living through every play, every out, every at-bat.”
However much longer Walter remains invested in the Dodgers — financially, at least — could come down to math.
Justice Department prosecutors, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a Delaware insurance regulator are investigating whether Walter funneled as much as $21 billion from the portfolios of two insurance companies he owns into private credit for loans to other companies he also controls while reporting just a fraction of the loans’ value. The Wall Street Journal and the Athletic reported Walter used billions of dollars of those insurance premiums to buy sports teams.
Such “related party transactions” are legal, within limits, but are required to be reported to guard against conflicts of interest and to protect clients.
In Walter’s case, the related-party loans f initially were reported at between $1 billion and $1.4 billion when the true total actually was between $16 billion and $21 billion. The reclassification meant the affiliated investments jumped from 2% of one insurer’s portfolio to about 40%, according to Fitch Ratings.
No formal charges have been filed, and TWG Global, the multinational holding company led by Walter, is cooperating in the investigation. Walter has declined to be interviewed or to respond to written questions about the investigation, but his representatives have strongly denied any improper behavior, describing reports of the probe as “substantial speculation and misinformation” advanced by “unnamed sources and self-serving interests.”
“It does not inspire confidence to know that this kind of wild understatement happened,” said Andrew Granato, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in corporate finance and insurance. “It also doesn’t inspire very much confidence in the system of insurance regulation we have, that there could be this big of a mess that was not caught for years.”
Walter hired veteran Goldman Sachs lawyer David Markowitz to be his chief legal officer and reportedly is exploring the sale of his 12.8% stake in the Chelsea soccer club to Clearlake Capital, a Santa Monica-based private-equity firm whose Puerto Rican-born co-founder, José E. Feliciano, recently bought the San Diego Padres.
A source close to Walter not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times he has an interest in selling Chelsea if the terms are right but insisted there is no desire to sell the Sparks, the PWHL, his investment in professional squash or, more prominently, his stake in the Dodgers.
While Kasten and TWG Global officials insist the Dodgers aren’t for sale, uncertainty likely will linger at least until all investigations are completed.
Times staff writer Mirjam Swanson contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Today’s Reflections
What an interesting pair of games. In one, the Cubs faced the NL Cy Young favorite, chased him by scoring five runs in four innings — and lost. And in the other, the Cubs’ offense was smothered by yet another up-and-coming Brewer SP, balanced by an elite Cub SP performance. Yet, the Cubs had to depend on two struggling RPs to achieve the win — and they did so two perfect innings for the win.
The second game allowed the Cubs to split the four-game series. It wasn’t the hopeful outcome, but the team avoided losing the series and kept pace with the Brewers in the NL Central.
Kevin Gausman came through with an Ace-level performance Thursday, having gone seven innings, allowed five hits and a walk with nine strikeouts. His lone blip was his lone run allowed — the dreaded *CSPSHR*, but that makes him a true Cubs SP!
For the final two innings, the Cubs had to turn to a pair of inconsistent relievers to close out the game. Ryan Zeferjahn has had a short, rocky stint as a member of the Cubs. Ryan Rolison was a stud for several weeks in the Cubs’ bullpen, but he has suddenly become inconsistent. But the short-term closing options available were extremely limited at best.
The duo took to the mound, with the vocal support of the Wrigley crowd, and pitched a perfect inning each to secure the win.
That made the only offense by Chicago stand. In the third inning, a Carson Kelly single and a Pete Crow-Armstrong two-run blast to centerfield for his 39th home run of the year led the way for the 2-1 win.
That was part of PCA’s two-game performance, as he went 2-for-7 with two walks and three runs. The only other performance over the two games that stands out is Alex Bregman’s 3-for-7 with a double, home run and four RBI.
Bregman was the impetus for the Cubs to chase Jacob Misiorowski from the mound, as his two-RBI home run and two-RBI double in the first two innings gave the Cubs a 5-3 lead. However, David Peterson was even worse than Misiorowski — Peterson went 3.2 innings, allowed six runs on seven hits and four walks with a *CSPSHR*. That included the key swing in the fourth inning, where Peterson’s three runs allowed turned a 5-3 Cubs lead to a 6-5 Brewer lead on the way to a Milwaukee win.
*Complimentary Starting Pitcher Solo Home Run*
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Thursday Night’s Game Stories:
Wednesday Night’s Game Stories:
Assorted Pitching Stories:
Assorted Hitting Stories:
Assorted Stories:
Food For Thought:
Blues singer, guitarist, and bandleader Theodis Ealey has earned his nickname as “the Bluesman Lover.” Ealey first made his name working with some of the best names in the blues, but he’s also won an avid following for his ribald R&B tunes about love and lovemaking. Ealey was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1947. One of 11 children, Ealey learned to play guitar when he was four years old, after his older brother Y.Z. Ealey gave him his first lessons. About ten years later, the brothers were playing together in a band called Y.Z. Ealey & the Merrymakers, with the younger Ealey on bass and a third brother, Melwin Ealey, also in the lineup. About a year later, Ealey traded in the bass for a guitar and joined Eugene Butler & the Rocking Royals, another group that played in the Natchez region.
He became a journeyman guitarist, and as his reputation grew, Ealey landed gigs backing up Little Milton, Richard “Dimples” Fields, Charles Brown, and Johnny Clyde Copeland. Now known as a first-class sideman, Ealey began stepping out as a frontman. It wasn’t long before Ichiban Records took notice of Ealey’s musical skills and signed him to a deal
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The lights are always a little brighter when the Astros play nationally on Fox. Today we’re treated to an exclusive conversation at The Crawfish Boxes with Fox 26 Houston’s long time sports personality, Nate Griffin.
Q: Nate, does something just feel “right” about the Astros playing a meaningful game in September on Fox?
A: Absolutely. You know, if the Astros are not in the postseason, it seems a little strange. The Astros had a magical run from 2017 to 2024. It’s easy to assume that the ship will keep sailing but thanks to injuries, free agency, a weakened farm system, etc., the “Astros Run” came to a bitter end in 2025. Saturday should be fun.
Q: Do you think we total it all up in a few weeks that 83 wins might be enough to win this division?
A: The A.L. West is the weakest division in baseball. Never thought we’d see such a struggle within the entire division. The Astros can’t seem to find the consistency to pull away. Their longest win streak this season is 6 games. Longest win streak for the Rangers is 4 games. Longest win streak for the Mariners is 8 games. The Astros longest win streak in 2017 was 11 games. But that seemed to give them the confidence they needed to finish strong at the end and they also had better pitching.
Q: If we’re sitting here a month from now and the Astros are playing in October, should Joe Espada return as manager?
A: The Astros could get on a hot streak in October, but I honestly don’t think it’ll be enough to bring Espada back. Seems to be a foregone conclusion that he is only with the team until the end of the season. It is believed that management is going to move forward without him.
Q: What’s been the biggest disappointment for you? For me, it’s been Imai.
A: There have been several disappointments in 2026. The Astros still seem to have challenges keeping their key players healthy. Hunter Brown wasn’t completely healthy to start the season. Christian Javier has not been himself since 2024. Carlos Correa wasn’t able to stay healthy this season. Tough to win. And the Astros expected more from Imai; didn’t get it. Also, not sure how the Daulton Varsho trade had helped the Astros. He’s currently hitting .172.